


Space Monkey!

by RonnieWriting



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, I promise im not trying to be an expert though, but telling you which movie is a giveaway for the plot, implied and referenced drug use, little things in each chapter are going to stack up for the au reveal, mental illness is a theme, modern ka au, this is an au for another movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:13:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25219081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RonnieWriting/pseuds/RonnieWriting
Summary: What Pixies song would I rec for this chapter?"Ana"
Relationships: Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Pixies song would I rec for this chapter?  
> "Ana"

Kris’ hand found a place in the juncture of her waist, ghosting over the bone of her hip and trailing ever so softly and naturally across the skin there. Anna let her hand wander over the pane of his chest too, the sounds of the street and cityscape outside the window like lulling her breaths into calm uniformity.

Just when his eyes were at their heaviest and settled into closing fully, he felt her shift under his arm and she leant over his body to palm the surface of the bedside table. 

He grabbed her wrist, “No, Anna.” The table was empty of what she was after, he had swiped it to the floor as soon as he could distract her with his own lips, “You told me you quit.”

She sighed, caught out, “I  _ did _ .” Only then did he catch and recognise the heavy smell on her breath. It was more than a bitterness of his personal musk; raw and stale and smokey.

The little, pink metallic zippo and box of cigarettes looked up at him from the floor, he had stared them down, telling them, ‘ _ At least I’m better for her than you _ ’.

Anna’s head fell back to him, landing defeated between his shoulder and neck, “And then I started again.” 

_ ‘Which one of us does she choose, though?’ _ the little cancer-sticks quipped.

This was how the transaction traditionally went: Anna would show up at his shitbox of an apartment, arms already locked around herself; one at her waist, the other on her shoulder-  _ click click _ .

She’d come in- or they’d kiss, whichever came first- and he’d undo her self-wound seatbelt,  _ click _ .

His door would shut behind her, _ click _ . His bedroom door behind them both,  _ click _ .

And they’d fuck- he was however she needed him,  _ whoever she needed _ , in that moment. 

That was not to say that he got  _ nothing _ from their transactions, a fuck buddy relationship was a two way street. But he wanted what he got from her: the feeling of being wanted, trust, a blissful night between soft, freckled thighs with no strings attached. What more was there to want?

What more did he deserve?

And after- she’d light up a cigarette to purge her mind of what he could not, that pink zippo stuck between her fingers,  _ click _ . It was like watching her lungs go up in flames before he could even wipe what was left of her off his cock. 

Last week she told him she quit, but as habit would have it, she couldn't let cancerous wounds heal.

He’d call himself lucky if she offered him a hug with little arms before she left through the door that snapped shut behind her with one resounding  _ click _ that lasted until the next.

Regardless of the resentment he had to what filled her lungs, he stroked a hand through her hair. By doing so, he deduced it had been at least a week since she last washed it. “Elsa trouble, huh?”

Anna nodded, sniffing once. It only made him card his fingers through her hair again. Her voice was guarded but broken, “Yeah, I had to take her to the hospital again. She’s only meant to be like this seasonally but she’s been taking it worse recently, I guess.”

_ Shit _ . 

He was about to start a spluttering spiel of reassurance to her but as soon as he felt the drop of a silent tear hit his skin, he locked both arms around her and pulled her flush against him. 

If the way she was pressed to him was uncomfortable, she wouldn’t tell him- instead she heaved ugly breaths by his throat and let him soak up the few tears she surrendered. 

This was better than words, easier too. God knew he couldn’t be articulate or sincere to save his life- but he knew that Anna found whatever comfort she did in between his arms, his own seatbelt that was just for her. 

_Click_ _click_.

That was Sven, Kris’ roommate, unlocking and shutting the door behind him after doing who-knew-what that late at night. He listened to the sounds of his friend idle in the kitchen for a while before he went to his own room and shut that door too.

Anna made no signal that she even heard him, only pulling out a clammy arm from in between them and letting it fall limp to his other shoulder. 

Without a doubt, Sven knew she was here. He  _ always _ knew.    
When Kris had asked how, his curly friend told him:  _ “You’re both just so loud at being miserable that when you get together its like a choir of heavy, depressing brainwaves and it’s just-” he shook his hands, searching for sense, “not at all what I like being met with off the landing, man.” Kris had only begun to roll his eyes, half-serious, but his friend had only started his post-hippy monologue, “I mean- whatever happened to concrete shit houses smelling like actual shit, man. And cheap beer and hookers- but instead I gotta come home to the stench of your rotting heart everyday.” _ _  
_ _ “Well,” Kris had started, “if you turned off your ears to the choir and took a breath around here every now and then, you’d see it’s never stopped smelling like shit… and cheap beer… and hookers.” _

That man could sniff out the trail of his self-destructive “love-life” like a bloodhound. Not to say that he hid it well- he was sure that Anna’s bra lay useless over something out there. 

Kris couldn’t resist the urge to talk to him, though- check in on him and even pull an answer out of him for what he did every night.  _ Sven was not the club-going type _ .

Once one of Anna’s tears dried and was unfollowed, he pulled her up to the head of the bed, tugging pillows behind her like a wall, and untangled himself from her.

“Where are you going?” she asked him smally as he swung his legs off the bed and pushed them through his pair of ratty, paint-smeared sweatpants.

“To check the door.” Kris answered and he shuffled out of the room with less than a glance over his shoulder. He muttered, “He never locks it properly.” to himself as he made his way past the bathroom door in the thin hallway and the couch to the door- which was, as he  _ knew _ , not locked properly. 

When he turned around again, a restless hand in his hair, he spotted Sven on the couch, neck hinged on the back, his eyes to the ceiling.

“I thought you went to your room.” Kris tried to determine what exactly he had stuffed his dark backpack with but it was tucked under his friend’s arm, out of sight. 

Sven rolled his eyes back to meet him, “I didn’t want to share a wall with you and Red.”

“We’re done for the night.”  _ That wasn’t true _ , he thought. Not entirely. Where did late nights end and early mornings begin? 

And anyways, Anna will most likely rather fall asleep with no promise of a wake up fuck (not that he minded either way), so unlike other times, other nights, this  _ would  _ be them being ‘done for the night.’

Sven raised his hands, “Hey man, I ain’t no babysitter- go nuts like I’m not- ”

Kris shook his head, coming closer to the back of the couch- conscious not to loom over the man. He lowered his voice, “Not the time, man.”

Sven studied his face for a second-  _ just for looks _ , Kris thought,  _ he always knows what I’m thinking _ \- then frowned, “Sister troubles, huh?”

“Worse than usual.” 

His friend’s face screwed up and he stuck his bulb-like nose in the air, “I thought I smelled smoke.”

Sven didn’t look like he was going to move anytime soon from the couch into his room despite the promise of quiet from his roommate. Kris was glad enough that he seemed too tired to launch into another speech about love or the human condition or what the neighbors under them cooked in their bathtub, he was tired too.

Sven closed his eyes just as he heard Anna call out his name like a squeak from his bedroom. “Go on,” he said, not opening his eyes and pulling his lumpy backpack under his head like a pillow, “confliction awaits.”

_ So much for being too tired for dramatic speeches _ . 

Kris left him like that, already dozing away, lanky legs hanging off the torn armrest, and sauntered back into his bedroom (after he checked the door one last time).

Anna was still where he left her, surrounded by pillows with his quilt pulled up over her naked chest. She looked at him in the doorway with those big, blue doe eyes, “Everything ok?” she asked. 

He couldn’t tell what kind of ‘everything’ she was asking about, he nodded anyways, “Got distracted.” It was a good enough answer to both, he supposed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Pixies song would I rec for this chapter?  
> "Break My Body"

If things were running as they usually did, Sven  _ wouldn’t _ be here- it was like an unnamed game he played with Anna: they never stayed in the same room together long. Like a tag-team. A disappearing act he remembered his parents playing; Another structured transaction yet with no seatbelt to keep him from flying nose-first through the windshield.    
Kris always thought it was more Anna that didn’t like Sven, rather than a mutual dislike. She’d call him loud and angry and confusing, but she still hung around for Kris- the better half of the two.

Nothing about a return to normalcy was promised. His bed stayed empty. His home, ice cold. No redhead waiting for him at his table with a cup of awful coffee balanced between her fingers. No lukewarm cup waiting for him beside her.

This ending, this ass-end of the transaction, was never terminal. There was always a promise of ‘next time’, and with a sister to weigh down her end, he was ready to understand any reason profusely. 

But it was never this cold. He wanted to give her any benefit of doubt, but as always, Sven had it right.  _ “Confliction awaits.” _

In Anna’s absence Sven kept his appearances up. And that meant influence.

Nights spent out together in the richer districts where he’d watch Sven wack apart tv satellites, bat in his own hand. Or they’d overfeed the pigeons that nested above expensive car dealerships. Or they’d just break into any one of the abandoned warehouses that was only a street away from where they lived. 

It didn’t surprise Kris that  _ this _ is what Sven got up to, but he had the inkling that  _ this  _ wasn’t all. 

On their walk back to the apartment complex Sven cleared his throat, “You know, man- if you frown any harder they’re gonna have to think up a new word for guys like you.”

He almost frowned less at that, “Aren’t you against the ‘they’?” 

Sven smirked, his teeth flashing under the street light as they passed under it, “I’m against the same 'they' that convinced you that you need a woman to feel normal.”

Kris stuffed his fists in the pockets of his baggy, rust coloured jacket, “It’s not about  _ women _ , it's about-”

“Your Anna.”

“She’s not  _ mine _ .”

His friend turned to look at him where they stood on the curb. The neon moon of the club behind them blinked at them, the muffled music like a heartbeat- it was the only life in the city. Sven smiled again, suggesting, knowing, “But when you think of her name there’s always ownership, isn’t there.”

“Not my ownership.” he said as he turned away to watch the traffic, calculating a break.

Someone passed on the sidewalk behind them, staring at the both of them all the way. Sven was unfazed, and pressed on, voice raised, “Guess I could call you ‘whipped’- maybe that’s the ownership you give her name in that crowded head of yours.”

Kris grit his teeth as they both raced into the middle of the street, cars rushing to catch up to them. They stopped on the strip in the middle. “Anna doesn’t own  _ me _ either. It's a mutual transact-”

“ _ Transaction _ , yeah, I know.” he heard him mutter, “It’s clever, sure, but I think you use it too much.”

As much as Kris hated his apartment complex, there was something charming to be found in the stairwell each time he used it. And by that he was referring to the things he’d dream up or think about or decide with the sound of his shoes on the steps to count each thought as he made his way up or down- _not_ in regard to what he actually found there (that was obviously not to say that shrivelled up condoms in the corners, or certain floors that smelt the worst, or particular strange strangers poking their head out their door at him wasn’t something he treasured entirely).

His thoughts were not alone on this ascent, though. Sven was seldom done talking, “But ya know, man, if she’s so into this hook up with you, don’t you think that she’s swiping her card elsewhere too?” Kris shot him a cold look but the man only laughed at him, “Heh, yea, you’re not the only one with hip metaphors, buddy.”

All Sven ever was, whether Kris liked to admit it or not, was a voice to his thoughts. And this notion was nothing fresh in his mind.

“Sure, she might be.” they reached their floor, “And if so, so what? Like I told you, neither of us own the other.”

Sven rounded the corner to their hallway first when he reeled back swiftly. He looked a mix of shock and distress, “Dude, you're in for a round.”

Kris didn’t need to look for himself; if Sven knew, he knew.

He did cave just a bit to peek around the corner- god help him if it was his ex or any of the other scornful women in his life. He shamed his doubt, there Anna was, sitting beside his door with her legs sprawled in front of her, horrible white stick in hand- but it was not lit.  _ ‘Quitting again _ .’ he thought in vain.

Nothing about the scene before him was off , but the seed of doubt was already planted and now even the way the streetlight warped through the window to cast over her outstretched legs looked foreboding.

His friend lowered his voice even though Anna was too far away to hear, “I'll leave it to you man, I'm not up for this.”

Kris sighed, “You’d like her if you gave her a chance, man.”

“You have your transaction with her, and I have mine .” he rolled his eyes, looking and sounding like a bratty kid in a sandpit.

He could have laughed if he wasn’t so tired, “Whatever.” He went to continue down the hall but was stopped by Sven who shrugged the bag off his back and pushed it into his arms.

“I’ll go over to see Hans for a bit, give you two some space to do whatever-the-fuck.” Sven started down the hall and rounded the corner before Kris could even think of a response. 

Realistically, Kris had no need to be nervous walking down a hall he knew so well to greet a woman he knew better. But the oddness of their routine disturbed him to the point where she seemed like a stranger to him. usually, unannounced visits were prefaced with a closeness throughout the week. 

She looked up to him as he got closer, a strained smile on her face as she fumbled to stand on legs that shook in the coldness of the place. She said nothing, just watching as he approached and pulled out his keys. He watched her too.

It was easy enough to guess that she wanted him to talk first, “Hey.”

“Hey.” she echoed to him as he twisted the key in the lock and opened the door.

She didn’t move to kiss him and he was good enough at reading Anna that she wasn’t looking for his initiative either. So he let her enter before him, “How long have you been waiting for me?”

“An hour or so… I’m sorry I didn’t call you.” Even though he didn’t look at her as he closed the door and hung up his key, he knew from the edges in her tone that she was already getting ready to lock her arms around herself. He wouldn’t mention Sven- or what they did that night- she seemed occupied enough.

He was overcome with the want to ease her, “You don’t need to be sorry- I get it, it’s-”  _ not okay _ , “-its okay.” She didn’t answer him, even as he filled the silence by striding to stand somewhere in front of her. Anna did look at him as he continued what surely sounded like a pitiful speech, “If Elsa stuff is worse than usual then I can understand ya know,” Kris could hear Sven’s voice in his head, screaming  _ ‘whipped! Pussy whipped!’ _ at him, “I can go with you to the hospital if you need because, like, remember when I told you about my mother I-”

“I started seeing someone…” 

The floor could have fallen out from under him of its own will. 

He stared at her, dumbly, absently- until he caught up with what  _ exactly _ she just said.  _ Click _ , all the implications snapped into place- what she said, what Sven said- the doubts he forced away.

When he could finally push a word out it was just as empty as he felt in that second, “Oh.”

Anna’s eyes didn’t look misty, but they were deeply sorrowful, “I’m sorry.”

“It's nothing to be sorry for.” He tried again to ease her, yet still, she looked like she was bracing for a storm to come from his entire being, that damned seat belt crawling its way into place. He loathed what she must’ve seen him as, “‘S not like we’re exclusively anything or anything.” 

Kris felt his arms itch, the sensation crawling all over his body as she didn’t follow his words. It propelled him to move away from her and set his mind on a task that spent his nerves; making coffee. “Where’d you meet him? Laundromat?”

Anna did, at least, follow him into the kitchen, “Support group.”

“Oh.” That voice in his head that sounded like Sven muttered a few evil, green remarks to him about the kind of men in support groups. 

Maybe the sample of the type of people who attended those local support groups had changed since he last visited one- whatever he remembered was trivial as, evidently, this example was less pathetic than Kris to make a move on her. 

Because he gathered that Anna was not anxious next to him, he felt the confidence and safety to ask her, “What’s his name?”

She glared at him as he filled the kettle, “If I told you then I’d find him beaten to a jam or on a 'missing' list- I’m not telling you.” 

_ A tempting thought. _

Anna was serious but with relief, the air in the room lightened. “Fine.” He grinned, “As long as he’s not some fuck-ass or a walking cigarette.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope those who are reading this are good with the way I've been writing it- slightly more poetic (obnoxious) and repetitive than what I'm used to but I feel like that lets me connect it better with the material that inspired it.  
> And I hope its being enjoyed overall!  
> thanks for reading, lovelies xx


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Pixies song would I rec for this chapter?   
> "There Goes My Gun"

With explanation, Kris’ next week was relatively uneventful and unplagued. That was, aside from the too-real dream he had of his father; harsh words spit with ugly truth, something colliding with skin, was there blood? There was definitely a slamming door that rattled him awake, shaking.

Uneventful aside from more of Sven’s antics which included a police van circling the block a couple times after his friend flew in the door and drew the curtains.  _ That _ was unexplained, but it remained best that way- he knew Sven’s limits like his own; there was confidence in this uncertainty.

He had thought, more than once, if he should venture to find another prospective fuck to fill empty hours in the night. No one could tell him it was immoral-  _ it wasn’t _ . 

_ But- _

_ Confliction awaits… _

As far as work went- it went. He had worked hard to force himself to forget what his job was actually called- it sounded worse than being a layabout in conversation- but it was all ratty ties and green numbers on black screens; mindless drone stuff. 

Move this number from this column into this one. Print. Copy. Copy. Copy.  _ Click _ , cc.  _ Click _ , send. 

Saying he did nothing sounded better than saying he was submissive to The Man- it was also, conveniently, a double edged truth.

The last time he was in the office he wore a tie, this time, first back in a small while, he didn’t bother.

On the night he was asked to stay back to catch up on some recent changes in policy (that was all too passively worded at  _ him _ for “past incidents of unfortunate circumstance”), he was just passing the community hall when his name was called out from behind.

The air wasn’t too cold that night but Kris’ breath still steamed in the air as he turned, ready to scowl at whoever was at his heels.

It was Hans, the bearable asshole that lived a dozen doors from him. “Hey man, you’ll never believe what I saw in there.” Hans said as he slowed to walk with him, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the double glass doors at the top of the hall steps.

“I’ll believe it.” he grumbled back. He might’ve probed Hans as to what he was up to in that hall- Sven certainly would have- but he was too tired to think much more that day.

Hans only laughed, matching his stride as they journeyed the same path, “That redhead, the short one, who’s always hanging around our floor- absolutely exploded at this other dude tonight.” 

_ Anna? _ Surely Sven had told-  _ oh… right. _

If Hans was going to lead on to context regarding Anna that he’d probably find out another fortnight from now, he may as well sell out, “What for?” 

“Oh, who knows.” Hans shrugged, “But it was enough to send her stomping after she slapped him.”

  
  


_ Click…  _

_ Bzzt~ _

_ Bzzt~ _

It disturbed the order of their transaction but he called her anyway. 

_ Bzzt~ _

If he was the one who slapped- pummeled- someone, she’d call him.

_ Bzzt~ _

Even if he was the one in an acknowledged relationship.

_ Click _ , he hung up.

Kris sighed, spiteful and self-abashed. He didn’t even wait for the water to fully boil before he poured it over whatever happened to be in his cup. 

_ Bringg! _

_ Brin- _ he snatched up the receiver like it caught on fire, “Anna-”

He wasn’t met with Anna’s voice, “ _ Who’s this? _ ” This one was far too deep to even be Anna on a ‘ _ bad day’ _ with her zippo. 

Strangely, his own name wasn’t the first to come to mind as he answered, “Sven.” He felt like pacing already, muscles ready to jump. Kris suppressed it everywhere but his jaw where it tightened as he spoke through clenched teeth, “ _ Is Anna there? _ ”

Instead of an immediate reply, he could hear the disembodied voice turn from the mic end of the phone and interrogate their apparent company. Kris only then realised that Anna would never talk to Sven willingly over the phone, what with their unnamed game of tag-  _ although… _ maybe she’d then think that if Sven was trying to reach her it was for their mutual interest- Kris.

There was a voice raised on the other end, sounds that he didn’t like recognising, before the voice rang in his ear again, “ _ Yeah, she’s not here man. _ ”

Before he could even think of anything to say that would legitimise what the voice told him-  _ Click _ , the phone was hung up.

_ Well shit _ .

He knew, by heart, the quickest ways to get to her apartment complex- and he knew he didn’t misdial.

“Are you talking to people about me?” 

Kris looked up, he must’ve been in the throes of his heavy distraction when his friend came in, but he had undoubtedly heard his own name come from Kris’ mouth to an unnamed party. 

“I told you  _ not _ to talk about me,” Sven said when he was met with no immediate answer, “especially not to Anna.”

Kris reached back to grab at his cup, it was decidedly too mucky to even be tried. After he poured it down the sink, he studied Sven, “You’re a people person- I still don’t get why you’re like this.”

“Like what, Kris?” It sounded like a challenge, like Sven was itching to make his confrontational quota for that night.

He tried to not let his friend’s tone affect him, “Bottled, man. Like- if I’m ‘confliction’ then you’re ‘contradiction’,” Sven let him continue,  _ the tables had flipped _ , “You can make friends with anyone but you’re picky on who ‘everyone’ is.”

The hostile air around Sven dissipated somewhat, “Hey man, I’m only human.” he shrugged as if he hadn’t looked ready to throw a punch a second ago, “I like people who like me- and it just so happens that your ‘everyone’ doesn’t like me.”

He certainly wasn’t wrong there.

“Look, alright- I got caught out by this dude who picked up her phone and I said the name that came to me first.”

“Want me to take care of him?” saying yes would tick off two things at once: a friend’s quota and his festering doubt and concern.

“No, I don’t know who he is yet.”  _ No, I want to do it myself _ .

Sven saw fit to disappear then, retreating to his room, so that Kris could sit alone and brood. 

If he left things to play out as they would, Anna would come to him in a week, broken-up, and tell him all about slapping some guy and how her ex couldn’t make her half as satisfied as he could. This wasn’t fantastical supposition either. It included equal parts comfort and re-opened wounds.

But- he had thrown a spanner in it. He had called her prematurely; if she wasn’t mad at him for exposing himself to an important significant-other in her life, she would undoubtedly be upset with him for robbing her of her sense of control and position of shot-caller.

Death by drowning or burnt alive? 

One was certain.

Was the guy she was seeing the same one she slapped? The same one on the phone? Circumstances aligned in favour of such a connection. 

In that case she’d surely welcome intervention… right?

_ Click _

_ What. Are. You. Doing.  _

He was out the door in a moment with the last of his senses commanding him to rip a thick coat from the rack on his way out. 

Kris didn’t even bother telling Sven he was leaving or where to; if there was going to be a spectacle, Sven was always close by. Heck, he probably knew what Kris was going to do the moment he left him alone.

It was just his fortune, however, the quickest route at this time of night, was also the riskiest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this fic is interesting or engaging at the least because it is unlike anything I'm used to writing in regards to stylistic features and plot.  
> Do let me know what you think!   
> thanks for reading xx


	4. Chapter 4

“Kris- what the hell happened to you?!”

_ “What have you done?!” no, I just so happen to be the one with blood on my hands.  _

_ “Stay away from him.” no, don’t hurt me. _

_ “...Lashed out, unprompted.” no, I was backed into a corner. _

_ “He went crazy, turned into a beast.” no... I’ve been like this for a while. _

She looked up at him with an unfiltered kind of shock. It hardly occurred to him to pay heed to what he looked like in that moment. 

On the way over he had to pass by a backway where the lurkers there knew him too well. They wanted him to fight. 

_ “Come on dude,” the one that stopped him must’ve been at least five years younger than any of them, himself included, “I’m better than last time.” and that at least was true- despite his plain layers, Kris could tell that he had hardened up from being little more than a clump of subtle clay- he had started shaping himself to brick. _

_ “I don’t have the time tonight, man.” He tried to get around him but he was stopped again.  _

_ A different man, “Take me then, come on.” He could tell that since last week this one had been practicing and not on other people despite what he was instructed. _

Punching him was what he wanted. Who was he to refuse them,  _ he was the one who started it, enabled it _ \- but not tonight.  _ By any God that look upon him- not tonight _ .

Back in the moment, he wiped his nose with the heel of his palm, smearing an unpleasant, sick-looking mix of blood and snot there.

“Hang on, just-” Anna was flurried, “sit down,  _ please _ .” 

She tugged on his jacket, leading him to a couch smaller than his own where he complied under her shaky will to sit.

Sitting there, on a couch he gianted, with Anna running around him, he felt a fleeting feeling of relief around him. The calm centre of a storm he created.

Anna was sharp, thinking and moving which meant two things: She wasn’t smoking and her support-group-boyfriend wasn’t constricting her. There was no one else in her apartment, she was alone- he  _ must’ve _ called a wrong number… with a different Anna?

The couch? The couch was a symbol- it was just as he remembered it. 

And he was sitting there. He had followed through, held his own and--

There was a memory in his hand, it was curling, tensing. 

Not a memory like the ones that had imbedded themselves into this same couch. This wasn’t fancified with mists of lust or conscience.

This was mindless. He had punched that man. 

_ Hard _ .

Anna sat beside him and pulled the tense hand between her own. For a moment, he doubted that his fingers would ply for her, but it took nothing more than a gentle pry to turn his whole hand into clay. Anna started to work at scrubbing the muck off his hand and only then did it occur to him that the blood there wasn’t all his.

The frown that pulled violently at her lips ripped him from his thoughts.

“Hey.” Kris had disturbed the silence but it eased the hardness in her shoulders. 

She met his eyes, reddened cloth idling on his skin, “What happened to you?”

He paused, “I ran into some guys I knew.” 

That seemed to be enough for her; she knew the sort. Anna nodded and pulled out a new tissue to clean up his face. He could’ve leant back and relaxed under her care but there were voices that pressed him, “I tried to call you.”

“You did?” Anna was surprised.  _ Ah, it  _ was _ a wrong number. _

But he wanted to make sure, “Yeah, some guy picked up- your support-group-guy?”

She shook her head as she finally took the tissue from his skin, the drier blood was stubborn, “It couldn’t have been him, he left.”

Kris watched her take the bloodied tissues to the bin in her little kitchen. There were no signs of a boyfriend, or a particularly violent break-up, around him- although, looking for physical signs seemed ridiculous after he thought about it for a whole second. “He left?” It could’ve meant anything- either he left the apartment after a romp or a fight or he left as in  _ breakup-left _ . For once, Kris found it hard to read her.

“Yeah.” Anna obviously likened the prospect of talking about him to pulling teeth. “Did you want something?”

“Oh!” He had forgotten why he was here, “I-”  _ wanted to ask about the guy you slapped, you know, an invasion of your private life? _ “Uh-”  _ wanted to make sure you need me to defend you? Because of course, only I can. _

_ Hey thoughts, _ he thought,  _ fuck. you. _

“I just wanted to check in with you- more so now that- not to say that you  _ need _ a guy around but- what with your sister, I thought I should… check in.”

Anna smiled at him, brighter than he’d seen for what seemed like a long time, “Thank you, Kris.” 

He tried not to blush when she moved the damp cloth to his upper lip to get the blood there. “I hope you don’t mind that it's in person and with me at your door looking like this-” since he was pulled in, he hadn’t noticed that her little printed shirt and fluffy pants were obviously pajamas. He felt all the more guilty for his rush, “-at this time of night.” 

Ever-observant, she noticed, “I don’t mind, I was going to do a few more things before I turned in. And…” Anna hesitated, “If you’re not in any rush to be off, I’d feel better if you stayed here for the night.”

_ Of course she would _ , “You’d be ok with that?”

“Yeah, you can have a shower and everything,” his hasty smell  _ was _ mixing something awful with the stale odor of smoke that clung to everything in her place, “and I can set up the pull out for you.”

Anna never needed to tell him when she wasn’t in the mood. Of all the things that he could pick up on with little cue- Kris was glad that it was Anna’s libido compass; it saved them both from such horrible messes of misunderstanding.

“I don’t have to be anywhere tonight.” He lent into her touch with a smile. _Anywhere else be damned_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its been a hot few months since I've updated anything but I wanted to take a break from writing fantasy stuff where I literally have to just write buckets of lore for myself so I don't get messed up- and lowkey its been stressful doing that and nothings clicking right now so I wanted to get back to space monkey for a bit. I don't know how many more chapters I'll be writing for it and how many more updates for this I'll be able to write but I promise I'll be trying!  
> thankyou to anyone who's still reading and I'm so sorry for making you wait so long for any update from me x


	5. Chapter 5

**_“Is he here?” He asked her._ **

**_She gaped at him, incredulous, “Who?”_ **

**_This isn’t my business… “The guy who picked up the phone- said you weren’t here.” But Kris is all I have. He really shouldn’t have been there- Anna’s place was a danger zone where everything was emotionally flammable- but what kind of friend am I if I leave Kris to suffocate on his stupid heart?_ **

**_“My boyfriend? No,” She crossed her arms over her chest, “he’s being a fuck-ass. Pissed of to God-knows-where.”_ **

* * *

When Kris woke up his head was spinning. Trying to sit up straight away would definitely send him into a nauseating head-spin, so instead he tried to take in his surroundings as the details of the morning he had woken to slowly entered his senses. 

The first thing that he became aware of was the surface he had been sleeping on- definitely  _ not _ the couch. The smells around him confirmed it- the skirmish between Anna’s milk and honey body wash and stale cigarette smoke, the lingering musk of sex - he was in Anna’s bed. 

Lazily, as if to ground himself, Kris reached a hand out beside him and groped at the sheets. 

_ She’s washed them recently.  _

_ How recently? _ The snide voice in his head pondered. To which he replied,  _ what does that mean? _ Only to receive no response.

Anna wasn’t in the room- that was the second thing he noticed. She must’ve been in the shower. With the way that the bedroom in Anna’s apartment was located he could hear the water running through the pipes in the walls.

Finally coherent, Kris pulled himself up in the bed. He got as far as sitting on the edge of the mattress before he even thought to look for contextual clues on himself. 

He was still in the jeans he came here in, which was assuring… had he not been bare from the waist up. 

_ Why shouldn’t I be able to remember what happened last night? _ He ran a frustrated hand through his hair as if he’d be able to shake the memories into place. He hadn’t taken anything and Anna wasn’t in the mood as far as he could remember- that was why he was to be set up on the couch after all… but the details were nagging at his brain. 

  
  


More awake, Kris made his way into the kitchen where he started up the kettle and pulled down two mugs from the cupboard.  _ 5:30am, _ it was an early morning even by Anna’s standards. 

For as long as he’d known her, Anna had a terrible sleep schedule. Her infrequent night terrors kept her up most nights and on others it was insomnia. At least on the nights he spent with her he could support her through the long hours but he could tell lately she was taking it worse. 

Regardless with what they did or didn’t do last night, Kris always liked to amend any missteps he might’ve unconsciously placed by making Anna breakfast. Granted, it wasn’t most mornings that he forgot whether or not they fucked but he thought it was a good way of affirming his intentions without awkward words.

The eggs had only been in the pan for a minute when Kris heard the shower shut off. 

“Did I wake you up?” came the disembodied voice behind him, still quiet and a little scratchy from sleep. 

_ Something in his chest tightened _ . “Of course not.”

Anna’s arms snaked around his waist and he felt the breath that left her as she leaned her whole weight into him. “You haven’t been sleeping well either have you?”

Kris wished he had more than her voice to go off in that moment. He had become so used to reading her microexpressions and body language that being unable to felt like he’d been robbed of a sense.  _ Is she on the verge of tears? Did I do something wrong last night? _

He braved a guess, “Is that why I fell asleep on the couch and woke up in your bed?” 

“Mhm...” 

Her touch was anything but constrictive but it felt like cinder blocks were coming down on his chest. She was worried about him. Anna- this woman with far too much empathy and yet none for herself- had put her discomfort aside and pulled a half asleep man into her bed. For his own sake.

A number of unwanted implications swarmed his thoughts but he had known for a long time how to quiet them down, his body moving on intimate-autopilot as he raised an arm to scoop Anna from around his back to hug her to his chest. 

Whether or not they did have sex last night became an irrelevant detail. The feeling that settled in the air around them was akin to post-sex euphoria. It was almost like this was a waking version of that exact phenomenon. 

The simple sizzling of the eggs in the pan and the distant sounds of dawning commotion outside the window provided a sort of backing track to their combined breathing. Whereas it would be similarly rhythmic when he’d fall down beside her after fucking away whatever particular negativity was plauging her that day.

Laboured breathing returns to normal, sweat dissipates, muscles relax, and the cycle slowly stars again.

Kris never considered himself to be touch-starved or clingy and yet when it came to Anna, it was like no amount of time they spent this close could sustain him. The option was there to seek out physical companions on the side, even dive into dating like Anna did on the frequent occasion- the deal had never included exclusivity, only honesty- but if he was honest, that kind of prospect didn’t interest him. Sven would insist that such differences wouldn’t make a fuck-buddy relationship last very long but until that day came, Kris was content to push down Sven’s voice with the rest in his mind that shouted a similar chorus. 

Reluctantly, Kris pulled away from Anna’s embrace to ease the finished eggs out of the pan and onto a plate. They were a little more well-done than he knew her to prefer but her presence always seemed to warp his perception of time.

“You didn’t have to.” She mused, still barely clinging to his side while he carried out his domestic performance. 

He smiled unconsciously, echoing, “ _ You _ didn’t have to.”

That brought a genuine, bright smile out of her. She took the plate gratefully, making sure she didn’t leave before tugging him down by the shoulder to plant a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

Rather innocently, Anna left him to ponder further on his feelings over a cup of tea. She was sitting on the thin balcony, eating leisurely at her table and chair as she watched the city wake up around her. His thoughts remained in much of the same back-and-forth, seesawing between fantasy and reality- delusional and painful. And he was about to go and join her when she picked up her phone and answered it with a very serious face, standing up- serenity vanishing.

Juvenile wonderings over a silly four-lettered word were forgotten as he now debated over how much he deserved to be involved in her personal matters. But then, between what looked from a distance to be worried, short responses, Anna looked right at him. In an instant he was crossing the room and coming closer to the desperate plea in her eyes that screamed  _ “don’t leave me alone.” _ Kris opened the door at the crux of the conversation.

“What- where is she now?” She spluttered. Kris shut the balcony door behind him, holding himself just within her arms reach.  _ The list of people Anna would take a call from this early in the morning is pretty short _ , he thought. And  _ he _ was one of them.

Anna looked up at him, eyebrows knitting together as she tried to make sense of what she was being told. “And there’s nothing I can do to keep my own fucki-  _ my own sister _ \--” Her hands were trembling, unable to lock back into her self-made seatbelt. So Kris did it for her. Gingerly, as if not to spook her, he stepped closer to her and ran a hand up her arm, and when that wasn’t met with a jolt, his other did the same on the arm that was holding the phone. Kris watched a harsh breath build in her and braced her for the impact by sitting down where she had been and leading her to stand between his knees. 

It came quietly, Anna nodded and surrendered a powerless “Okay.” to her phone, voice cracking around the edges. The phone came away from her ear and her brave mask slipped. 

_ Click _ .

Kris was on his feet again without a second thought, folding her tight against his bare chest as the first sob bubbled up in her throat. He didn’t even realise he was beginning to shush her gently until he leaned in further over her and his voice bounced off the side of her neck. “Whatever you need,” He offered. “Anything you need, I’m here.”

Anna’s arms moved from where they had wandered up to his shoulders to prop against his chest, creating just enough space between them so he could see the tear streaks that glistened along her cheeks. He waited for her to gather a solid breath, trying to translate all of his support into a look. And when she finally did, she gasped, “They’re moving Elsa to another state.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops- I said this would be up sooner BUT HEY, rn is sooner than tomorrow amirite.  
> it was mainly the second half of this chapter that was harder to write and mix in aspects of internal progression with external events and blah blah the continuation of the world outside of kris' thoughts BUT its getting on and I'm really enjoying playing with all these themes!!!  
> I hope you're enjoying reading it and I hope this update was worth it to all you lovely people that read my "work".   
> Thanks so much!!


End file.
